El Camion to open in old Zesto’s location

Posted by Meghan Walker on November 26th, 2012

The popular Mexican food truck, El Camion, will be opening up a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the location formerly occupied by Zesto’s, and more recently, Roro’s BBQ.

El Camion owner Scott McGinnis says the restaurant, which will be called El Camion Adentro (translates to, “the truck inside”), should be open by the end of the year. The restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with beer hopefully on the menu sometime down the road.

McGinnis, who has lived in Ballard for 12 years, has three El Camion trucks; one in Ballard, one up north on Aurora, and one down in SoDo. On finding a location to open up shop, he says he was, “looking for the right opportunity in the right spot and this crossed my radar so I jumped on it.”

“We have spent the good chunk of a month, cleaning the place out,” McGinnis says. They’ll keep the building pretty much the same because they’d like to open as soon as possible. However, he says they plan to get rid of the old Roro’s/Zesto’s decor and replace it with Mexican art. They’ll have both counter and table service, and plan to develop some lunch specials for the neighboring Ballard High School crowd. “We want to reach out the community and the high school,” McGinnis explained. “I don’t see one or the other as the main demographic. I think people know about it, and it’s a Ballard landmark in some way, and we’d like to continue that.”

Of opening in the space Roro’s only occupied for a matter of months, Mc Ginnis said he’s “up for the challenge.” “We’re going at it full force. I think it’ll be a great spot for people to know us, to get in, and have good food.”